The GEC or Gender Equity Center is LCC’s support center for students of all genders and sexual identities with a large focus on community. However, how has that community been affected by covid and what kinds of resources can students expect? To answer these questions and get a better understanding of the center the Torch sat down with Marci Parker and other students and staff.
Marci Parker has been working with the center for years. Originally a part of the WIT — Women In Transition — program, Marci Parker worked front desk at the center for 17 years and as a student worker for five, and made her way up to a full time position.
What kinds of services does the center provide for students?
We have plenty of books, coffee, tea, free snacks, library and LGBTQ resources and information. The center is a welcoming environment for students to relax or catch up on schoolwork with our computers, or if they just need a place to work. We also have information regarding the WIT program where we offer women who are going through any kind of transition in their life such as coming back to school is a transition.
How has the community in the Gender Equity Center grown over the years?
I say that over the last few years we have declined but now within the last month we have begun building our student base back up from COVID. It has been wonderful to see all the students come back to campus.
What kind of workshops or events are in place to support that return?
We have started having events such as pronouns days, pride, ace day, we had trans awareness week, one thing that’s coming up is our holiday giving wall for Lane children. We will have kids’ names on the board to give presents away for the kids.
The center as well has many other plans coming up in the following months for workshops and events for topics such as boundary setting, procrastination and time management, self care and movie watch-a-longs.
The center, like many other organizations, has taken a hit from the pandemic. However they are steadily returning to normal. Some excitement has sprung as Tina Kotek, Oregon’s newly elected governor, recently dropped into the GEC for a visit.
Savanna Wilson, the Vice President of the GEC, was present at the time, “I met her briefly as my coworker showed her around the center. She was a very kind person.” The coworker, Jessica Buenrostro, was offered to join a tabling event with Kotek. She was very interested in showing her around however she was very tight on time during the visit as she had to leave right on a certain time. The two rushed into the center and she was shown around. It was during this brief visit that Kotek said she wasn’t able to have something like this in her day, so she very much appreciated it.
While she had to leave quickly Jessica Buenrostro was “happy she could make the time to visit!” Other students who work at the GEC, who were not present at the time of the visit, and while they feel politics can be polarizing expressed that nowadays it’s always important to keep an open mind and be inquisitive when it comes to politics. Overall the GEC is a relaxing environment for students in need of a safe environment. Many of the students very much feel this way with it being a much needed place where they can do their schoolwork and hang out with fellow students as a judgment-free zone with a new friend right around the corner waiting for a nice conversation.
